The Register - On-Prem

AI energy draw from Chicago datacenters to rise ninefold (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
No wonder industry is exploring nuclear as an alternative to electricity US energy provider Exelon has calculated that power demand from datacenters in the Chicago area is set to increase ninefold, in more evidence that AI adoption is will put further strain electricity supplies.…
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A quarter of 5-7 year olds now use smartphones, says regulator (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
Social media use and gaming show steep increases within the age group, after UK comms watchdog given new powers The UK's telecoms regulator has found that nearly a quarter of children between the ages of five and seven own a smartphone while a similar percentage use social media unsupervised.…
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Germany cuffs alleged Russian spies over plot to bomb industrial and military targets (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
Apparently an attempt to damage Ukraine's war effort Bavarian state police have arrested two German-Russian citizens on suspicion of being Russian spies and planning to bomb industrial and military facilities that participate in efforts to assist Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.…
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Some smart meters won't be smart at all once 2/3G networks mothballed (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
UK reckoning with prospect of millions of homes with obsolete hardware Months after being quizzed by a committee of cross-party MPs, the UK government is still failing to clarify ways to support the substitution of millions of smart meters that will become obsolete when 2G and 3G networks are switched off.…
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Your trainee just took down our business and has no idea how or why (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the debrief meeting On Call  Welcome once more to On Call, The Register's Friday foray into tech support memories contributed by you, our much-appreciated readers.…
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Huawei's latest flagship smartphone contains no world-shaking silicon surprises (Fri, 19 Apr 2024)
Kirin 9010 SoC powering the Pura 70 is impressive, but doesn't indicate unforeseen prowess When Huawei debuted its Mate 60 smartphone in mid-2023, it turned heads around the world after teardown artists found it contained a system-on-chip manufactured by Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) using a 7nm process.…
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IBM accused of cheating its own executive assistants out of overtime pay (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Big Blue bosses retaliate against those seeking overtime, lawsuit claims IBM has been accused of cheating its executive assistants by denying them overtime pay and meal breaks and retaliating against them for accurately reporting their working hours.…
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Microsoft aims to triple datacenter capacity to fuel AI boom (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
And it's far from the only hyperscaler getting in on the act Microsoft is looking to significantly expand datacenter space to service expected AI demand, tripling the rate at which it adds capacity early in its next financial year. Other hyperscalers appear to be following suit.…
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911 goes MIA across multiple US states, cause unclear (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Some say various cell services were out, others still say landlines were affected. What just happened? Updated  Widespread 911 outages in the United States appear to have mostly been resolved, though that doesn't mean the cause is clear.…
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TSMC expects customers to pay more for chips fabbed overseas (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
It'll be pricier, but there are geopolitical benefits, says CEO TSMC boss C C Wei says customers who want to fabricate in the chip giant's non-Taiwan facilities will need share the cost by paying more.…
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Micron scores $6.1B CHIPS Act cash for New York and Idaho fabs (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Memorymaker to park mega plant in Syracuse, says senator Memory chipmaker Micron looks set to be the next recipient of US government subsidy cash with $6.1 billion heading its way to help fund new-build semiconductor plants.…
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Novelty flip phone strips out almost every feature possible to be as boring as possible (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Only good for calls and texts pretty much, and that's no mistake Those who find modern smartphones too distracting from real life might be interested in the Boring Phone (no relation to the smartphone of the same name), a novelty flip phone based on HMD's Nokia 2660 Flip.…
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Prolific phishing-made-easy emporium LabHost knocked offline in cyber-cop op (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Police emit Spotify Wrapped-style videos to let crims know they're being hunted Feature  Cops have brought down a dark-web souk that provided cyber criminals with convincing copies of trusted brands' websites for use in phishing campaigns.…
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AI PCs are here but a killer application for biz users? Nope (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Resist the pressure to jump on the bandwagon just yet warns, warns Forrester Forrester Research says that although 50 models of AI PCs are already on sale today there remains "no killer app" that would make any of them an essential tool for business users.…
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Cisco creates architecture to improve security and sell you new switches (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Hypershield detects bad behavior and automagically reconfigures networks to snuff out threats Cisco has developed a product called Hypershield that it thinks represents a new way to do network security.…
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Europe gives TikTok 24 hours to explain 'addictive and toxic' new app (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Commissioner Thierry Breton likens click-to-earn version to cigarettes The European Commission on Wednesday gave TikTok 24 hours to explain the risk assessment procedures it used before launching a version of the made-in-China app that rewards users for using it in certain ways.…
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Taiwanese film studio snaps up Chinese surveillance camera specialist Dahua (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Stymied by sanctions, it had to go … but where? Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Zhejiang Dahua Technology, which has found itself on the USA’s entity list of banned orgs, has fully sold off its stateside subsidiary for $15 million to Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corporation, according to the firm's annual report released on Monday.…
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HPE sues China's Inspur Group over server patents (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Middle Kingdom biz accused of IP theft and changing names to evade sanctions Hewlett Packard Enterprise has filed a lawsuit against Inspur Group, China's largest server maker, for allegedly violating five of its server technology patents.…
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Hugely expanded Section 702 surveillance powers set for US Senate vote (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Opponents warn almost anyone could be asked to share info with Uncle Sam On Thursday the US Senate is expected to reauthorize the contentious warrantless surveillance powers conferred by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and may even strengthen them with language that, according to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), "will force a huge range of companies and individuals to spy for the government."…
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Snowmobile, Amazon's truck-powered migration service, reaches the end of the road (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Demand for bulk storage on wheels turned out to be wan Amazon Web Services is abandoning its fleet of Snowmobile data haulers, the trucks packed with petabytes of spinning disks designed to get large enterprises into the cloud.…
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Uncle Sam earmarks $54M of CHIPS funding for small-biz semiconductor boffinry (Thu, 18 Apr 2024)
Up to 24 outfits to bag taxpayer cash for projects 'developing a viable product or service' for US chip industry Small businesses wishing they could get their hands on some of those billions of dollars in semiconductor funding being doled out as part of America's CHIPS Act are in luck, as the White House has set aside $54 million for tiny firms with big ideas.…
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Psst, hey. It's the NSA. You want some AI security advice? (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
You can trust us, we're the good guys The NSA has released guidance to help organizations protect their AI systems and better defend the defense industry.…
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America may end up with paid-for 5G fast lanes under net neutrality anyway (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Damn you, network virtualization A law professor is warning a proposed reintroduction of net neutrality in the US will allow cellular networks to create “fast lanes” for some applications, and that this undermines the entire net neutrality principle.…
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ASML ships another high NA EUV lithography machine to mystery client (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
The cutting-edge chipmaking tool for a secret customer Dutch semiconductor toolmaker ASML has shipped its second-ever high numerical aperture (NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine to an undisclosed customer.…
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Kremlin's Sandworm blamed for cyberattacks on US, European water utilities (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Water tank overflowed during one system malfunction, says Mandiant The Russian military's notorious Sandworm crew was likely behind cyberattacks on US and European water plants that, in at least one case, caused a tank to overflow.…
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Future Roku TVs may inject tailored ads into anything and everything when you pause (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Muted the audio? That's an advert. Paused a video? That's an advert Updated  Will Roku TVs of the future throw up targeted ads on the screen whenever you pause a video? We hope not but...…
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Tesla asks shareholders to reinstate Musk's voided $56B pay package (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Given the electric car maker's annus horribilis so far in 2024, does the chief even deserve it? A Delaware court may have voided Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package in February, but now the board is asking shareholders to reinstate it.…
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Samsung boosts LPDDR5X to 10.7 Gbps, ups efficiency and capacity for mobile and servers (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Guess what it's great for? Go on, have a guess... 20 points if you muttered an abbreviation starting with A and ending in I Samsung has revealed its upgraded LPDDR5X memory modules, which features improved performance, capacity, and efficiency.…
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ASML profits plunge 40% amid dip in chipmaking tool orders (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Except in China, where customers accounted for almost half of the photolithography giant's top line Chipmaking kit maestro ASML generated almost half of its sales from China in calendar Q1, amid a wider downturn in orders and plunging profits.…
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Logitech intros free tool for ChatGPT prompts... plus a mouse with an AI button (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
For when the AI service cannot grok what it's being asked Logitech has launched a free software tool to help existing users of its kit with ChatGPT prompts, but those that splash out on the upcoming Signature AI Edition Mouse, get a... dedicated AI prompt button.…
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Global IT spending forecast to reach $5.0T this year (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Comms services and AI contributing to increase, but vendors are taking 'risks' Gartner expects global IT spending to grow 8 percent in 2024 to $5.06 trillion in a revised forecast from the 6.8 percent uptick which the analyst predicted in January.…
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RISC-V AI chip upstart Rivos plans to undercut Nvidia, helped by a quarter-billion in VC lucre (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
With Apple lawsuit behind it, focussed on finalizing its designs RISC-V chip designer Rivos has raised $250 million in series-A funding to bankroll production of its first accelerator for generative AI and data analytics workloads.…
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Fire in the Cisco! Networking giant's Duo MFA message logs stolen in phish attack (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Also warns of brute force attacks targeting its own VPNs, Check Point, Fortinet, SonicWall and more Cisco is fighting fires on a couple cybersecurity fronts this week involving its Duo multi-factor authentication (MFA) service and its remote-access VPN services.…
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FYI: This site claims to have harvested 4B+ Discord chats, today all yours for a price (Wed, 17 Apr 2024)
Of course there's an enterprise plan for the Feds and AI trainers Updated  Internet-scraping outfit Spy.pet claims to have harvested more than four billion public messages made by nearly 620 million users on more than 14,000 Discord chat servers – and is selling access to this trove.…
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MGM says FTC can't possibly probe its ransomware downfall – watchdog chief Lina Khan was a guest at the time (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
What a twist! MGM Resorts wants the FTC to halt a probe into last year's ransomware infection at the mega casino chain – because the watchdog's boss Lina Khan was a guest at one of its hotels during the cyberattack.…
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YouTube now sabotages ad-blocking apps that stream its vids (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
EFF lambastes latest 'lazy and deliberately malicious move' YouTube says it will intentionally cripple the playback of its videos in third-party apps that block its ads.…
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China scientists talk of powering hypersonic weapon with cheap Nvidia chip (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Jetson module can efficiently process computational fluid dynamics models Analysis  Researchers in China have reportedly demonstrated how a low-cost Nvidia Jetson module could theoretically be used to direct a hypersonic weapon.…
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Latest AMD Ryzen Pro chips are similar silicon, more smarts (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
That other processor company really wants you to use AI at work AMD has brought its 4 nm Hawk Point and Phoenix APUs to business users in the form of the Ryzen Pro 8040 series for laptops and Ryzen Pro 8000 series for desktops.…
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Micron says it's first to QLC NAND with over 200 layers (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Enhanced data density and speed upgrades, though challenges in endurance remain Micron is now mass producing 232-layer QLC NAND, claiming it's the first memory manufacturer to break the 200-layer mark in QLC chips.…
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Blackstone wants to plug hyperscale datacenter into former Britishvolt battery site (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Plans to plant $12B bitbarn where homegrown renewables hope once lived US private equity investor Blackstone has plans for a £10 billion ($12.45 billion) hyperscale datacenter in northern England on a site formerly owned by battery startup Britishvolt.…
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KPMG bags £8.5M NHS gig as cheerleader for Federated Data Platform rollout (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Consultancy tasked with helping local services get on board The UK's health department has awarded global consultancy KPMG an £8.5 million ($10.5 million) contract to help implement the controversial Federated Data Platform (FDP) at a local level.…
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AI cloud startup TensorWave bets AMD can beat Nvidia (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Starts racking MI300X systems - because you can actually buy them and they beat the H100 on many specs Specialist cloud operators skilled at running hot and power-hungry GPUs and other AI infrastructure are emerging, and while some of these players like CoreWeave, Lambda, or Voltage Park — have built their clusters using tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, others are turning to AMD instead.…
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Intel's effort to build a foundry biz is costing far more – and taking longer – than expected (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
If you wanna make money you've gotta spend money. And against Samsung it's gonna cost a lot Analysis  Three years after CEO Pat Gelsinger announced Intel would create a foundry business that took on contract manufacturing gigs, Chipzilla has committed to more than $185 billion in spending across new and existing fab, packaging, and test sites.…
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Alibaba Cloud reveals network telemetry tool that helped cut number of engineers needed by 86% (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Zoonet employs 'elegant generalization of ping and traceroute' among other tricks Exclusive  Alibaba Cloud has detailed the telemetry tool it uses to look out for glitches in customers' virtual networks, and revealed it’s reduced the number of personnel dedicated to troubleshooting by 86 percent since developing the system.…
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Konica Minolta and Fujifilm ponder JV to cut costs of printer businesses (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Japanese giants have big brands, but tiny shares of a shrinking market Japanese imaging manufacturers Konica Minolta and Fujifilm have revealed talks aimed at creating a joint venture to handle printer manufacturing and R&D for both brands.…
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Los Alamos Lab powers up Nvidia-laden Venado supercomputer (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Promises up to ten AI exaFLOPs of grunt – if you turn down the resolution a bit Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has flipped the switch on its Venado supercomputer – a machine capable of bringing ten exaFLOPS of performance to bear on AI workloads for the Department of Energy.…
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CISA in a flap as Chirp smart door locks can be trivially unlocked remotely (Tue, 16 Apr 2024)
Hard-coded credentials last thing you want in home security app Some smart locks controlled by Chirp Systems' software can be remotely unlocked by strangers thanks to a critical security vulnerability.…
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What's up with AI lately? Let's start with soaring costs, public anger, regulations... (Mon, 15 Apr 2024)
'Obtaining genuine consent for training data collection is especially challenging' industry sages say The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) has issued its seventh annual AI Index Report, which reports a thriving industry facing growing costs, regulations, and public concern.…
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Senator Warren slams Intuit's 'junk fees' as America's Tax Day rolls around again (Mon, 15 Apr 2024)
Says the IRS can do this stuff for free As Americans go through their annual ceremony of tax day, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has reminded the FTC that tax software biz Intuit is making bank on "junk fees."…
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Samsung snags $6.4B in CHIPS Act funds for Texas fabs (Mon, 15 Apr 2024)
Work in Austin, Taylor will include new 2nm facility, packaging plant, and Pentagon partnership Samsung is the latest chipmaker to benefit from CHIPS and Science Act funds, with the US Commerce Department today announcing the Korean megacorporation is getting $6.4 billion in funding to expand its Texas operations. …
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